Window and siding replacement in Union
What the code and the permit desk actually require here — and what the houses in Union tend to be hiding behind the siding.
- People
- 12,348
- Homes
- 5,530
- Size
- 9.03 square miles
- From downtown
- About 50 miles southwest
- ZIP codes
- 63084
- Founded or incorporated
- 1826
Union is the Franklin County seat (designated 1827), sited on the Bourbeuse River; population grew from 402 in 1880 to 12,348 by 2020.
Union
Median house/condo built is 1998, consistent with the city's fastest population-growth period of 2000-2010 (+31.5%) — housing skews toward 1990s-2000s suburban construction.
What that vintage turns up
First-generation vinyl replacements went in across this whole period and they are now hitting both of the ages that matter at once: the frames are inside the twenty-to-forty-year band and the sealed glass units are well past the eight-to-twenty-year band. That combination produces the most common call we get on houses this age — fogged glass in a frame that is still perfectly sound. The honest first answer there is replacing the glass unit, not the window.
Hardboard and wood-composite lap siding from this era is the one with the paperwork. Masonite's hardboard covered product installed between 1980 and 1998 and reached roughly four million homeowners; Louisiana-Pacific's Inner-Seal siding had its own national settlement in the mid-1990s. Both claim programmes closed years ago, so the relevance now is diagnostic rather than financial: swelling, delamination and mushrooming along the bottom edges of the boards on a house of this age is a known product history, not necessarily the owner having neglected it.
The one to watch on a house of this age
Synthetic stucco applied before about 1997 is the high-risk cohort. Roughly ninety-five per cent of American applications were the face-sealed kind, which has no way to drain what gets past it, and the failures traced back overwhelmingly to flashing that was left out. Drainable systems are a different animal and are not the problem.
The rules in Union
Siding replacement Permit required
Re-siding is not listed among work exempt from permit, and Union has narrowed the exemption list rather than widened it. City Code Sec. 500.060 adopts the International Residential Code, 2021 Edition, and Sec. 500.065 amends it: for R105.2 Work Exempt from Permit it directs 'Delete numbers 1, 2 and 10' - stripping out the model code's detached-accessory-structure, fence and deck exemptions. Nothing is added, and no siding, window, glass or roofing exemption exists in either the model list or Union's amendment. Permit required under R105.1 as adopted.
Window replacement, same opening Permit required Enlarging or cutting an opening Permit required
No same-opening / new-opening distinction is drawn. The 2021 IRC R105.2 model list has no door/window replacement exemption and Sec. 500.065 adds none (it only deletes items 1, 2 and 10), so a permit is required in both cases. Same caveat: read from the adopted and amended code, not from a city page - the Permits page says only that the Engineering/Building Department 'is responsible for the review of plans and issuance of building permits for all residential and commercial construction and remodeling projects within the City.'.
There is no legal efficiency requirement for a window in Union
The City's Building Codes page lists among adopted codes: 'ICC International Energy Conservation Code - 2021 Edition,' alongside 2021 IBC, IRC, IEBC, IPC, IMC, IFGC, IPMC and 'NEC 2020 Electric (As amended for area of jurisdiction)'; the page was last updated February 2024. But the codified Chapter 500 contains NO energy code adoption section at all - its sections run 500.010 Building through 500.084 and cover building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, fuel gas, existing building, residential and property maintenance only - and Sec. 500.065, amending the adopted IRC, directs 'Chapter 11, Energy Efficiency - Delete in its entirety.' So the city's web page says 2021 IECC while its ordinance book neither adopts an IECC nor keeps the IRC's own energy chapter.
Which does not make it a good idea to buy the cheapest glass available. It means nobody is going to stop you. ENERGY STAR asks for U-0.25 or lower here and that is the number worth buying to, code or no code.
Contractor registration Yes
The City's own building permit application asks 'Does Contractor have a City of Union Business License? YES NO Pending N/A' and provides for payment of a $50.00 fee where the answer is no or pending - i.e. a City of Union business licence is a condition of pulling the permit, at $50.00. The applicant must also supply a Missouri State Tax I.D. Number. No trade-specific siding or window licence, and no bond or insurance requirement, is published. Chapter 500 contains no contractor licensing section - the requirement appears only on the permit application form.
What the permit costs
The building permit fee amounts themselves are not published: Sec. 500.045(A)(3) states only that 'permit fees shall be as specified in Section 500.100,' and Sec. 500.100 does not appear in Chapter 500 as codified.
Local quirks
Union's website advertises the 2021 IECC while its codified Chapter 500 adopts no energy code and expressly deletes IRC Chapter 11 in its entirety - two of the city's own primary sources saying opposite things about the single most important field for an insulation/siding/window contractor. Union is also one of two Franklin County jurisdictions in this metro (with Pacific) that deletes the IRC energy chapter outright. Its cross-reference to a Section 500.100 for permit fees points at a section that does not exist in the codified chapter - a second, smaller drafting defect.
Who to call
- Building dept
- 636-583-1805
- Official
- Not published. Any site printing a name here is guessing.
- Permits
- Department page
How Union compares with the rest of Franklin County
Same county, same climate, same houses. Not the same rules.
| Place | Permit to re-side | Permit for a window | Window must meet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Union | Yes | Yes | — |
| Pacific | Yes | Yes | — |
| Washington | Depends | Depends | — |
Work we have done in Union
No completed job in Union on the books. Every other page on this site is sourced, so this one stays honest too.
Where these facts came from
Everything on this page about Union was read off a published source. Where a question has no published answer we have said so rather than filling the gap.
Sources: unionmissouri.gov · unionmissouri.gov · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · ecode360.com · cms4files.revize.com
Thinking about it in Union?
A measurement and a written scope costs you nothing and takes about an hour.
Tell us about the house
We answer the phone. If we miss you, we call back.